Movie review: Puss in Boots’ is the cat's meow

Friday

A notorious lover and fighter, Puss is helped out by a pitch-perfect Antonio Banderas, whose voice mesmerizes you with his deeply smooth Spanish accent. You melt like butter.

Puss in Boots was always one of the best things about the “Shrek” franchise. And as the titular character in this latest 3-D ‘toon from DreamWorks, Puss proves he really is a cool cat.

A notorious lover and fighter, Puss is helped out by a pitch-perfect Antonio Banderas, whose voice mesmerizes you with his deeply smooth Spanish accent. You melt like butter.

And, if you haven’t completely surrendered, you will when Puss’s rival and love interest, Kitty Softpaws (voiced seductively by Salma Hayek), makes her appearance. You’ll get lost in Kitty’s sky-blue eyes, lush lashes and long whiskers, which are cleverly juxtaposed by her street-smart toughness.

Like “Batman Begins,” “Puss in Boots” is an origin story that takes place long before the swashbuckling cat even met that irascible green ogre, Shrek, who’s never mentioned. When we catch up with Puss, he’s an outlaw with a big bounty on his tail. Ultimately tasked to save his village, San Ricardo, and to clear his name, Puss faces off with villainous storybook characters: the greedy Jack and Jill, deliciously voiced by Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris, and the double-crossing Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis).

This is a children’s story, and it’s super cute, fortified with bright dialogue and imaginative action sequences. But it’s also one of those rare movies where there’s another level of humor and cultural references just for the grownups.

The jokes actually work, including a reference to “Fight Club.” It’s a good example of the caliber of work DreamWorks Animation can do when it’s firing on all cylinders. “Puss in Boots” is on par with “How to Train Your Dragon,” not the studio’s infinitely inferior “Kung Fu Panda 2.”

The script is credited to five writers, including Brian Lynch (“Hop”), David H. Steinberg (“American Pie 2”), and Jon Zack (“Shrek the Third). Usually, that many cooks spoil the meal, but they really kept their ingredients to just a few and didn’t crowd the story with lame jokes or too many parallel plots. They got out of the way and let the animators work their magic to stunning results.

Holy Frijoles! The sight gags alone are enough to make “Puss in Boots” engaging. But even more impressive is how director Chris Miller, who co-helmed “Shrek the Third” and had a hand in the other two, infuses “Puss in Boots” with an acute and imaginative attention to detail. Early on, a clever dance-fight sequence is simply hilarious.

A skilled swordsman, Puss is like a feline Zorro, and the movie tells how a once-revered Puss ends up with the boot on the other foot to lead the life of an outlaw. And it traces his past with Humpty Dumpty, the mastermind of their obsessive quest for the magic beans that will lead them to Mother Goose’s golden eggs. Many other fairytales and nursery rhymes are woven in. I don’t want to elaborate because it’s more fun to discover for yourself.

It’s not necessary to see “Puss in Boots” in 3-D, but if you feel the urge to splurge on the higher ticket price, this is a rare instance when it is worth it. Instead of just flinging characters and objects at the audience, the animators use the technology to deepen and enrich the backdrops and characters. You can’t help but want to pet Puss and play with his feathered cap. It’s all pretty me-wow.